308 



which in reahty is part of the south European fauna. Thiele's 

 central African record is still open to question. 



The omission of South America by Baker was assumed by 

 Chamberlin and Jones to mean that Physidae was absent from 

 there. South America has a large number of species of this 

 family. 



Cockerell (1929, p. 379) has recently recorded that 'New 

 Caledonia is very rich in species of the genus Physa, and those 

 I collected have a very ordinary appearance so far as can be 

 seen from the shell .... One of the New Caledonian 

 species, Physa ventricosa of Gassies, has been referred to Bulinus, 

 which has nothing to do with true Physa.^ 



So far all New Caledonian forms investigated (both shell and 

 soft parts) as well as material from other sources in the southern 

 Pacific have proven to be Bulinus and not Physa. E. von 

 Martens (1897, p. 6) stated that all of the forms from the East 

 Indies and southern Pacific islands described as Physa were 

 probably Isidora (= Bulinus). Suter (1913, p. 610) in his 

 manual followed von Martens adding several other localities as 

 areas from which the family Physidae is absent. 



Physa distorta Haldeman. 



Physa distorta Haldeman, originally described from Ohio, 

 seems to be without much question the southern European 

 Bulinus contortus Mich. An examination of the types with 

 specimens of B. contorta contained in the collection at the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia shows them to be 

 the same. The types are umbilicated as stated by Haldeman, 

 a character not possessed by any known Physa. Haldeman also 

 placed P. distorta in the subgenus Diastropha Gray (now a 

 synonym of Bulinus) which had as its type Physa (= Bulinus) 

 contorta Mich. 



1840 Physa distorta Haldeman, Supplement to Mono. Fresh- 

 water Univalve Moll. p. 2; P. (Diastropha) distorta 

 Haldeman, Mono. Freshwater Univalve Moll., Thysa- 

 dae', p. 35, 1843. 



